State of the art portable electronic devices (e.g. mobile phones, portable media players or portable game consoles) are typically equipped with a user interface through which a user of such portable electronic device may interact with and operate the portable electronic device. The user interface typically includes a user input interface for inputting data or information and commands to the electronic device. The user interface typically also includes an output user interface, e.g. in the form of a display, for displaying or rendering a data representation. As used in this specification, the term “data representation” is intended to refer to the visual appearance of any data or information displayed or rendered on the display. The data representation may e.g. include text and/or a visual image. As such, the data representation may comprise, but is not limited to, menu lists, digital photo images captured by a camera, SMS messages, MMS messages, browsed web pages, TV broadcasts, etc. Consequently, users of state of the art portable electronic devices can use the displays of such devices to view, inter alia, text, visual images, TV broadcasts, videos, etc.
The terms “portrait” and “landscape” are often used to refer to different orientations of a data representation—whether it is oriented vertically or horizontally when displayed on the display of the portable electronic device. Portrait orientation is where the height of the displayed data representation is greater than the width. On the contrary, landscape orientation is where the width of the displayed data representation is greater than the height, and may e.g. be used for data representations that need to be wider than what is offered by portrait orientation. The state of the art displays of portable electronic devices may be relatively small in size and, hence, viewing of data representations on such displays may sometimes be rather awkward to the user. The user is therefore often free to choose to display data representations either in the horizontal “landscape” orientation or in the vertical “portrait” orientation. For example, it is often considered appropriate to present a data representation such as a TV broadcast in a “landscape” orientation, whereas it may be considered more appropriate to display a data representation such as a menu list in a “portrait” orientation of the mobile phone. Consequently, in many state of the art mobile phones the user has an option to use a software application to choose between a landscape orientation and a portrait orientation in dependence of the rotation orientation of the mobile phone. However, this is a manual operation and can be quite time-consuming. Time-consuming operations may be annoying to some users.
Consequently, there appears to be a need for a more automatic means and method for orientation adjustment of a data representation that is displayed or rendered on a display of an electronic device, such that the data representation can be displayed in an appropriate orientation on the display in dependence of the rotation orientation of the electronic device. The orientation adjustment of the data representation should preferably be achieved with only little or, preferably, no user intervention.
A possible solution could be to equip the portable electronic device with mercury-filled switches, photo-interrupter type switches or gravity-sensitive switches to detect or sense the rotational orientation of the portable electronic device. Based on the detected or sensed orientation of the portable electronic device, adjustment of a data representation that is displayed or rendered on a display of an electronic device could then be performed, such that the data representation could be displayed in an appropriate orientation on the display in dependence of the orientation of the electronic device. Inclusion of physical auxiliary means for orientation detection, such as the above-mentioned switches, has been suggested in the field of digital cameras; see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,909 to Parulski et al. or US 2004/0017506 A1 to Livingston. However, any inclusion of physical auxiliary means for orientation detection, such as switches, also involves increased cost and requires some space within the portable electronic device in question. Therefore, any inclusion of physical auxiliary means for orientation detection, such as switches, might be disadvantageous, especially in small-sized portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, portable media players or handheld game consoles.